LAMP PACKAGE WITH AN INTEGRAL STRUT

CONDITIONNEMENT POUR LAMPES, AVEC FUT INTEGRE

English Abstract

This invention relates to a package which is
suitable for the packaging of fragile articles such as
electric light bulbs. The package is especially
adapted far high speed packaging in that the package
may be collapsed to a flat blank for shipping but may
be quickly opened in such a manner that each of the
opposing sidewalls of the package has a projecting tab
extending inwardly therefrom so that the two tabs are
joined together to form an integral strut and thus
stabilize the two opposing sidewalls of the package.
Because of the symmetry of the devices being packaged
the projecting tabs must be symmetrically located in a
central area of the sidewalls. It will be found that
this invention will be applicable to high speed
packaging of fragile articles in chipboard cartons
which are capable of receiving at least two similar
articles such as lamp bulbs.

Claims

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The embodiments of the invention in which an
exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined
as follows:
1. A carton for receiving a plurality of lamp
bulbs of similar size and shape, wherein two of the lamp
bulbs are stacked together in a side by side nesting
relationship; said two lamp bulbs being restrained by a
pair of opposing sidewalls which have a strut extending
across and joining said opposing sidewalls, said strut
being formed by stamping integral tab members from
opposing sidewalls of the carton and joining said tab
members, and said strut also serving as a resilient
separator for said two lamp bulbs inserted into said
carton in a nesting relationship.
2. A carton as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tab
members are joined by glue.
3. A carton as claimed in claim 2 wherein said tab
members are of similar shape and size and are hinged from
the center of the sidewalls in such a manner that the
carton may be folded into a flat shipping blank.
4. A carton as claimed in claim 3 wherein the tab
members are somewhat circular in shape and are hinged
along a fold line in the center of the sidewall which is
parallel to the longitudinal axis of the carton, each tab
having at least one slit therein.
5. The carton as claimed in claim l, 2 or 3
wherein the carton is formed from single ply chipboard
cardboard.
6. A carton blank for assembly into a carton for
receiving a pair of lamp bulbs in a nested relationship,
said carton blank comprising:

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a pair of sidewalls;
a pair of endwalls;
suitable flaps at the remote ends of the sidewalls
and endwalls;
a pair of cooperating tabs formed in each of the
sidewalls of said carton blank,
said carton blank capable of folding into a
flattened assembly suitable for shipping with the pair of
cooperating tabs having overlapping portions joined
together;
said carton blank capable of being opened from said
flattened assembly into an open carton position with the
sidewalls oppositely positioned for receiving two lamp
bulbs of similar shape and size, the joined overlapping
portions of said cooperating tabs resulting in said
cooperating tabs being pulled into the carton blank away
from respective sidewalls to form an integral strut
extending between opposing said sidewalls when the carton
blank is opened into the open carton position; and,
said integral strut in the open carton position
laterally stabilizing the opposing sidewalls and
resiliently separating lamp bulbs inserted into said
carton.
7. A carton blank as claimed in claim 6 wherein
said cooperating tabs are of circular shape and are
hinged from said sidewalls.
8. A carton blank as claimed in claim 6 or 7 in
which the blank is formed from single ply chipboard
cardboard.
9. A carton blank as claimed in claim 7 wherein
the cooperating tabs form hinge lines with said sidewalls

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and the overlapping portions of the cooperating tabs are
remote from their hinge lines and joined by gluing, and
the hinge lines are located in the centre of said
sidewalls and extend parallel to a longitudinal axis
passing through the said carton in the open carton
position.
10. A carton as claimed in claim 6 wherein the tabs
are hinged along a fold line in the center of the
sidewall which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of
the carton and each tab having at least one slit therein.

Description

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LAMP PACKAGE WITH AN INTEGRAL STROT
BACRGROOND OF THE INVENTION
Packaging for fragile articles such as
electric light bulbs has taken a variety of forms and
until recently most lamp packages have consisted of
corrugated paperboard cartons in which two or more
light bulbs were packaged in side by side opposing
relationship in a sleeve which had open ends, and some
energy absorbing medium between the adjacent bulbs.
There may be a central partition of the same corrugated
paperboard which has cuts to provide movable tabs to
allow compact packaging of the adjacent light bulbs.
In some designs the central partition has
been eliminated and tabs have been made in the
sidewalls of the paperboard sleeve which may be pushed
inwardly to provide an energy absorbing surface between
the two adjacent bulbs. A second sleeve of similar
corrugated paperboard has been generally utilized to
cover the open ends of the sleeve in which the bulbs
are packaged. This not only ensures that the bulbs are
captive in the inner sleeve but also provides an extra
measure of shock absorption to the overall package.
These packages have generally found utilization in
packaging bulbs in multiples of two.
Some examples of patents which utilize the

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corrugated paper construction are:
U.S. Patent 3,053,431 to Jacobs;
U.K. Patent 1,545,465 to Bowler et al:
U.K. Patent 2,035,960 to Watkins et al;
Canadian Patent 1,022,506 to Getz et al; and
Canadian Patent 1,128,904 to Beard.
The use of corrugated paper cartons has
proved satisfactory for most purposes for the past
fifty years. The corrugated paper gave an excellent
measure of shock absorption, but the lamp cartons
fabricated therefrom could be crushed rather easily in
certain situations leading to lamp breakage.
Lamp cartons fabricated from corrugated paper
also suffered from a narrow latitude in ability to
accept multiple colour printing on the surface thereof.
It has therefore been the trend to find some
other suitable container which would provide a suitable
surface for printing advertising messages thereon, and
yet provide a stiff structure which might be used on
the new higher speed packaging machines, without
imminent collapse due to the great accelerations
necessary to pack these lamps at high rates.
The material chosen for printing adaptability
and acceptable packaging characteristics is a single
ply chipboard material.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention is related therefore to a lamp
package suitable for packaging lamps in multiples of
two wherein the two bulbs are separated by a unitary
tab which is composed of two opposing cooperating tabs
projecting from opposing sidewalls which are glued
together to form a unitary tab construction.
Lamps may be inserted into this package from
both ends simultaneously and the unitary tab member
provides the necessary shock absorbing device to

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prevent breakage of the adjacent lamps.
The use of a single tab member which essentially ties
the two sidewalls together makes for a lamp package with
stabilized sidewalls and has great resilience to allow high speed
packing techniques.
Because the composite tab consists of the two tabs
projecting from both sidewalls of the lamp package, the package
is symmetrical so that the lamp package contents may be viewed
from either side.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAi~IINGS
FIGURE 1 is a view of the blank which is subsequently
folded to form a container for two lamps;
FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the carton of FIGURE 1
shown in the folded glued flattened condition;
FIGURE 3 shows a partial perspective of the package
formed from the blank of FIGURE 1 in the opened condition with
the end flaps open for the insertion of the lamps; and
FIGURE 4 is a side view of the carton, and
FIGURES 5, 6, and 7 are end views of the blank carton
showing the various stages of opening,
FIGURE 8 is a side view of a three lamp carton, and
FIGURE 9 is a partial view of a blank showing an
alternative embodiment for the strut.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EL~ODIMENT
FIGURE 1 shows a blank 9 for a carton used for packing
fragile articles such as lamps which is the subject of this
invention. Basically the blank is formed of single ply chipboard
(cardboard) having sidewalls 10, 11, 12, and 13 which are
separated by folding lines 14, 15, 16, and 17. A pair of end
flaps 18 and 19 are shown projecting from sidewall 10; flaps 20
and 21 from sidewall 11; flaps 22 and 23 from sidewall 12; flaps
24 and 25 from sidewall 13.
In instances where the carton is to be packed

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with electric lamps the carton will be of such a size
as to accommodate to electric bulbs in side by side
relationship; thus the sidewalls have a greater width
dimension than the end walls.
Blank 9 also has a pair of tabs 29 and 30 cut
or pierced from sidewalls 11 and 13 which are shown to
be (in this instance) somewhat circular in shape. The
shape does not necessarily have to be exactly as shown
but the configuration shown has demonstrated the
ability to function well. The size and location of the
tabs 29 and 30 is somewhat critical in that these tabs
must overlap in the assembled package so that the
overlapped portions of the opposing tabs 29 and 30 may
be glued together.
Referring now to FIGURE 2, the blank 9 is
shown in a folded flat position as would be acceptable
for shipping carton blanks. In this instance flap 26
is made to be joined to endwall 10 by gluing or other
suitable joining method and tabs 29 and 30 are also
joined together at the point of overlap as illustrated
at 31 in FIGURE 2.
It will be noted tabs 29 and 30 have their
fold lines located in the centre of the sidewalls 11
and 13 respectively. By choosing this location the
lamp carton blank may be stamped out, printed and
shipped in folded flat configuration to the place where
the lamp bulbs are to be packaged.
When the package is to be used as a
packing carton, the flattened carton is loaded
into a lamp packaging machine which subsequently
opens the flattened package as shown progessively in
FIGURES 5, 6, and 7 to produce the carton shown in
FIGURE 3 and inserts two lamps, one from each end. The
two tabs 29 and 30 have been previously glued together
to form an integral strut which automatically stretches

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across the middle of the two sidewalls when the flat
package is opened. Note that the lamp packing machinery
does not have to insert a finger or other similar device
into the package to erect a projecting tab so as to
ensure that a shock absorbing device is between the two
lamp bulbs.
Because of this, this particular package has a
design which is readily adaptable to high speed packaging
techniques while simultaneously providing excellent shock
l0 absorbing characteristics because of the inherent
resilience of the strut formed by tabs 29 and 30.
FIGURE 4 shows how the strut fits between the
nested bulbs to cushion and provide a resiliency for the
interface of the nested bulbs.
The end flaps will be closed and glued in a
manner well known in the lamp packaging art with the end
flaps 18, 22, 19, 23 folded inwardly first and
subsequently flaps 20 and 24 are folded and glued in the
closed position as are flaps 21 and 25. After initial
opening of the carton, the purchaser may close the carton
by inserting tongue 27 on flap 21 into slot 28 of flap
25.
The shape of the tabs 29 and 30 (each provided
with a pair of slits for providing the desired
resilience) have been chosen to be somewhat circular in
shape but other shapes may provide the necessary
resilient cushioning for successfully packaging the
nested bulbs. This shape has provided the desired
separation and cushioning while providing the purchaser
with an aesthetically pleasing aperture on both sides of
the carton which provides the purchaser with a good view
of the contents. It is believed that other tab shapes
will also function in a similar satisfactory manner.

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It will be found that the advantages of this
package resides in the fact that when the flat carton
is unfolded from the flattened shipping condition to
the boxlike configuration used in packing, that the
strut appears automatically without any external
assistance thus allowing a faster packaging speed. The
strut by its shape and cuts has excellent natural
resilience. The fact the strut extends across the
center of the sidewalls only provides extra rigidity to
an otherwise excellent packaging carton.
FIGURE 8 is a side view of a three lamp
carton showing how the two lamp carton of this
invention may be augmented by adding three more walls
to provide complete confinement for the third bulb. A
four lamp carton with two nested pairs of lamps such as
shown in Figure 4 and having a common package wall
separating the two pairs will be obvious to those
skilled in the lamp packaging art.
Figure 9 is a partial view of a strut
composed of a pair of tabs 129 and 130 which are joined
by providing a slit extending approximately half way
across each of the tabs. The two tabs may then be
interlocked together by sliding the two tabs together
so that the two mating slits intersect each other and
lock the tabs together to form a unitary strut. It
will be seen that the shape of the tabs 129 and 130 is
slightly different than described previously, but this
shape lends itself to this particular method of
connecting the two tabs together.
While other configurations of tabs may be
possible the applicants wish to limit the scope of
their invention by the following claims.

Representative Drawing